Energy is set to 0
Warning. †Low Temperature Immunity† is now disabled.
The cold causes all stats to decrease by 5%
Unless you get warmer, stats will continue to decrease.
The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%
Total loss due to cold: -10%
I felt the sting of the cold immediately. I knew that in my murlimp form the cold would become a problem again, but I’d already tried breaking through the ice with my human strength and if I wanted to get out, I needed something more. My murlimp-self sank to the ocean floor, which was only about thirty feet down since the ice shelf hugged the coast. I walked across the sea bottom until I was directly under the patch I’d fallen through.
The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%
Total loss due to cold: -15%
The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%
Total loss due to cold: -20%
Even though the ocean water was technically warmer than air on the surface, water has much greater thermal conductivity so the cold was acting much faster. I had to hurry. I crouched and leapt with all the strength my murlimp form could muster. I was too heavy to swim so I could only push off the bottom.
The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%
Total loss due to cold: -25%
The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%
Total loss due to cold: -30%
I rose quickly to the surface. As I neared the ice sheet, I thrust my fist upward and pounded the ice. The ice sheet broke roughly around the same borders as it had the first time and I fell back to the ocean floor.
The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%
Total loss due to cold: -35%
I didn’t wait even for half a second. The instant I reached the ocean floor I jumped back up and grasped the edge of the ice sheet. Even with my clawed murlimp hands, it was tough to get a grip on the ice as my high body temperature visibly melted it beneath my fingers. I had to be quick and dexterous but I managed to pull myself up and clear of the water. As soon as I was out, I crawled away from the hole as fast as I could in fear that the nearby ice was weakened and might break, that I might be sent back in.
The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%
Total loss due to cold: -40%
The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%
Total loss due to cold: -45%
…
…
The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%
Total loss due to cold: -70%
It’s strange isn’t it, how it’s even colder when you just get out of the water. The effects of the cold moved even faster than before and would until my body burned all the water off. Unfortunately, the melting ice below me insured I’d never get completely dry.
The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%
Total loss due to cold: -75%
I couldn’t stay the way I was. I needed to get my cold immunity back. I needed to get out of this murlimp body and return to my human one. I tried to open my mouth and get it to form the necessary word but everything was stiff and numb.
The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%
Total loss due to cold: -80%
My murlimp form may have been a lot stronger than my human form, but its entire body weighed over a thousand pounds, it needed immense strength to make even the smallest movements and so badly weakened by the cold I no longer had that strength. All I could do was lay there and wait for darkness to take me.
‘I should feel happy,’ Lilith thought to herself as she stared at the augmented murlimp that lay unconscious on the ice. Malphestos was away at the moment, he didn’t know what his precious research resources were being used for. One had died in the fight and she’d almost lost a second to the ice. Lilith wasn’t sure how she was going to tell Malphestos, wasn’t sure how badly he’d react, but she knew that losing two would be worse than losing one.
She’d been worried when one of her murlimps fell into the ice water, they were resilient to the cold but an extended dip into ice water would surely prove too much.
After the murlimp broke back through to the surface, Lilith rushed over and cast an insulation spell to protect it from further harm before checking its condition. The murlimp was half-frozen and unconscious but would be fine.
‘It lost its armor,’ Lilith noted, figuring the murlimp removed it to make it easier to jump out.
Despite this bit of good news, Lilith’s mood remained sour. During the battle, Lilith immediately recognized me. I was the human that caused a great loss for her after all. I looked pale and sickly to her, but she also recognized that I seemed to have gotten a lot stronger compared to a year before. So strong in fact that I nearly screwed her over by killing two of the improved murlimps. Lilith felt fortunate she was able to recover the second murlimp. The result of this field test would be quite poor if she’d lost two of them. One could be chalked up to bad luck, two was a pattern. A pattern that would reflect poorly upon Malphestos’ work and that scared Lilith more than anything else could.
For a brief time, Lilith had been looking forward to capturing me and paying me back for everything I’d done to her, but that didn’t seem possible to her anymore. With this water, Lilith figured I would have died in less than a minute.
“I guess revenge will have to wait for next time,” Lilith sighed. She knew my status as a being from another world. She knew I’d come back.
‘I need to think about what to do about Malphestos. That matters more,’ Lilith thought to herself as she looked over the rest of the battle’s aftermath. Her other murlimps were huddled in a circle around the primitive captives. Distlemander ordered her to capture some alive so they could be interrogated. They needed to know what led the intruders out this far and whether there’d be anymore. As such, the murlimps had only killed two of us, one other than myself.
Most of the human prisoners were unconscious but a few were still awake.
“What do?” one of the murlimps asked Lilith.
Lilith looked over the captives, Distlemander wouldn’t need so many to interrogate, only one or two. She was free to kill the rest and not have to trouble herself with their transportation, but another idea popped into her head.
“Put the prisoners on the sled. Then get moving,” said Lilith. They should move quickly because this level of cold wasn’t good for the murlimps.
“You two,” Lilith pointed out two of the murlimps. For the most part, she couldn’t tell them apart easily so she didn’t bother giving them names. If needed, they could each be identified by a chip imbedded under their skin. “Carry your fallen companion. I don’t think he’s getting up anytime soon.” The two murlimps stomped over and took up one shoulder each of what they thought was their fallen comrade.
Lilith turned to the captives, five in total. Three were unconscious, two weren’t. These two were the human mages. The murlimps were ill suited to capturing them without dealing undue harm so Lilith stepped in at the end and sealed off their mana. Without magic, the mages could do nothing and the murlimps didn’t even need to touch them. The mages were physically pathetic even by human standards and it wasn’t like there was anywhere to run.
“You two, hop on the sled and we’ll get going,” Lilith told the mages after the murlimps finished throwing the others onboard.
“What did you do to Isaac, you monster,” Rose cried, tears pouring down her eyes to the point where she couldn’t see and Zelus had to lead her.
“Dead, frozen or drowned. I’m not sure which did him in first,” Lilith replied. Which of those ways didn’t matter to Lilith, both were too quick for her taste.
“Don’t worry. You know Isaac. He’ll come back. We really have to worry about ourselves at the moment,” Zelus tried to console Rose. Both reluc
tantly got on the sled. They didn’t know what came next but they knew that stalling wouldn’t help. They knew that there was no help to be had.
Lilith took one last look at the newly refrozen patch of ice before she left. Only one thought was on her mind.
‘Next time we meet. I’ll really make you suffer for everything you’ve put me through.’
Lilith imagined such a meeting would be a long time off, probably not until the daemons fully moved out onto the surface. Because her target was immortal, she knew it was bound to happen. Little did she know, she wouldn’t have to wait very long.
Ch. 26: Hiding
Lilith made her way back to Niflheim quickly and after returning the murlimps to their section and finding a place in Malphestos’ holding cells to store the prisoners, she went up the long metal corridor before Distlemander’s office to report in the results of her mission. Lilith brought along the leader of the barbarians, a female that shouted orders during the battle. Distlemander wanted to question someone and who better than the leader.
“Ah, Private Demogorgon, I saw your mission was a success,” said Distlemander as they entered. As he spoke, Distlemander continued writing something at his desk.
“Yes,” Lilith nodded toward the female barbarian as if her presence was how Distlemander knew.
“No, I mean I watched it live,” said Distlemander. He set down his pen and tapped a disk on his desk, which brought up a hologram. The battle looked quite different through thermal images, but it was clearly the fight of a couple hours before, a few brilliant white murlimps squaring off against a bunch of blips that barely registered.
Lilith glanced to the desk and read the last few lines Distlemander had written. ‘I fear that a ten percent loss in a battle of equal numbers is unacceptable. Given our current population, we will likely be engaged against overwhelming numbers. I recommend alternatives be found.’
“I have to say that the murlimps effectiveness in battle don’t quite live up to Malphestos’ claims,” said Distlemander. He made his voice sound grim, but his mouth couldn’t help but turn up a bit into a smile. Technically, Distlemander ran Niflheim and Malphestos was just another researcher, but Distlemander really didn’t have much authority over Malphestos and it was others back in Gehenna that determined how resources were distributed. Since Malphestos’ expertise lay in biology while Distlemander’s lay in robotics, there was very little overlap or shared benefits between their work. Any funding secured by one could only be taking potential resources from the other. The success of Malphestos’ murlimps had been a great boon for the biologist, anything Distlemander could do to undermine that success was a plus.
“Yes, well, the climate conditions here are a bit unfavorable, if the murlimps were further south, I’m sure they would do better,” said Lilith.
“I suppose that’s true,” Distlemander sighed.
“This is the captive you asked for,” said Lilith as she pushed Izusa forward.
Izusa felt the push but it felt strangely smooth and spread out, like she was being pushed by a wall. Niflheim had strict climate controls and were set to be comfortable for daemons. It was hot enough to kill humans in seconds so Lilith placed an insulation artifact on Izusa so she could be escorted through the base.
“Ahh, I have a few questions for this one,” said Distlemander. He reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a pair of dark metal disks. “I always wanted to use these for real. Tests only go so far.”
Distlemander placed one of the disks on each of Izusa’s temples and turned them on. Izusa yelped in pain as spikes from the disk drilled into the sides of her head, securing themselves in place. Izusa couldn’t see it but red lights on the sides of the disks were slowly blinking.
“I’ll need you to translate. I assume that won’t be a problem,” Distlemander said to Lilith.
“No,” Lilith replied. She’d learned many languages in preparation for her surface missions.
“The probes on your head measure brain activity. Currently they’re getting a baseline reading, when they’re ready, we’ll begin. I’m going to ask you some simple questions. If you lie, the disks will know it and send a small electric charge. Each charge will be slightly stronger than the previous, lie too many times and you die,” Distlemander explained while Lilith translated for Izusa.
“How did you manage to tune it for their physiology?” Lilith asked to the side. The researchers were always in Niflheim, they never got the chance to test anything on the surface dwellers before so Lilith didn’t understand how Distlemander could have prepared the device to measure something as complex as a brain of an unfamiliar organism.
“You’re right it isn’t calibrated. I set it on its default mode where it simply uses how much activity there is. It takes more brainpower to fabricate a lie than it does to tell the truth so if she thinks too hard the machine assumes she’s lying. I’m pretty sure it will work,” Distlemander explained to Lilith.
The red flashing stopped. They could begin.
“Do you understand how this is going to work?” Distlemander asked.
“No,” Izusa sneered, before a jolt of electricity forced her to scowl as she dropped to her knees.
“Good. Now, how did you know to come here?” Distlemander began.
“Why would I tell you anything?” Izusa countered.
Distlemander smiled at that. He picked up a small remote from his desk and pushed one of its buttons. Izusa made a faint choking sound as her body met another surge of electricity. Distlemander held the button down for several seconds, letting the current linger a lot longer than the lie detectors auto-shock. Lilith started to smell burning flesh. She’d always thought of Distlemander as the nice one compared to Malphestos. Maybe she was wrong.
Eventually, Distlemander let go of the button and Izusa’s writhing relaxed.
“Understand?” Distlemander asked. This time he didn’t wait for an answer. He didn’t need to. His point was made. “Now, just this once I’ll ask again. How did you know to come here?”
Izusa briefly considered keeping up the fight, but the pain of high voltage electricity was beyond anything she’d ever experienced. Even if she tried to fight it, she would eventually break and it wasn’t as if anything she could say was time sensitive. Talking now wouldn’t harm anyone and could spare her and the others under her command pain.
“This place has long been known to my people, a strange metal structure standing alone in eternal winter. A few summers back, an explorer saw people moving in and out of this place. No one believed his story, at least not at first, but after the weather started acting strange and the New Fallen showed up, a few of us decided it was worthy of investigation. I guess we were right. I do not know who you are, but you people are the ones responsible for everything. Are you not?” said Izusa.
Distlemander briefly tapped on the remote again, bringing Izusa closer to the ground as she writhed in pain.
“I’m the one who gets to ask the questions, as apt as yours might be,” said Distlemander. “And what I want to know next is, whether I have to expect more of you?”
Distlemander’s scouting drones could only reach out 150 miles or so. None had spotted any other group on the ice plains, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anyone out there. A few interlopers, like the group they’d captured, weren’t a threat, but this facility was a research center, not a fortress. Most of those inside didn’t have much in the way of fighting skills and while Niflheim’s original outer structure had been quite robust, a number of changes were made to make the place more suitable for daemon habitation that also made them more vulnerable.
“There’s no one else coming. Or at least no one I know of,” said Izusa. The lie detector didn’t automatically go off. Izusa was telling the truth. Distlemander relaxed.
“We’re finished here then.” Distlemander’s hand moved to press a button on the remote.
“Wait, I still have use of her,” said Lilith, but Distlemander ignored her and pressed the butto
n anyway.
Electricity, the strongest burst yet, ran through the prisoner. It seemed to go on and on, the prisoner’s body convulsing on the floor until smoke rose from all across it. Distlemander had killed the prisoner for no reason but boredom. Or at least that’s what Lilith thought would happen. It’s what Malphestos would have done.
However, when Distlemander tapped a button on the remote, it was a different button than the one he used before. Instead of treating Izusa with a painful spark, it was like he simply switched her off. Izusa slumped to the floor and the electrifying disks on her temples switched off and detached themselves.
“Don’t worry. She’s only unconscious,” Distlemander told Lilith. “I assume you have a good reason for wanting as many human captives as you’ve taken.”
“While your work may not have much use for them, my master, Malphestos is a different story. I hope to use them as a good surprise for him when he returns from Gehenna,” said Lilith.
“And you probably hope that they’ll be enough to make up for the fact that you lost one of his specimens,” said Distlemander.
Lilith nodded. “Though I’ll make sure he knows I was only following orders,” Lilith added.
“Feel free to do whatever you wish in that regard,” Distlemander smiled. He wasn’t worried about Malphestos. “We’re done here, you can go.”
Lilith picked up the unconscious Izusa and walked out of Distlemander’s office. From there, she traversed practically the entirety of Niflheim and up six floors to the portion of the facility that held Malphestos’ lab.
The Ice Lands Page 37